Recently posted this photo:
which elicited the following comment/discussion…
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Oooh, Japanese saw-file. Do those work significantly better than a Surform “plane”? I’ve been watching a British YouTube series about building a wooden motorboat named Temptress (also significant CNC content, not Shapeoko however…), and the builder also uses a saw-file.
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Yes, they are just about magical in terms of material removal rate and surface finish left behind — I have a Surform somewhere which I purchased when I first started make archery bows on the cheap, but it’s since been relegated to its designed purpose of cleaning up/shaping the edges of cut drywall.
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Thank you for that tidbit, Will. My Surform is over four decades old, one of my first immediate-post-college thrifty days tool purchases, and if I ever knew its actual purpose I had long forgotten it. I have only ever used it on dimensional lumber.
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The Shapeoko has drastically reduced my need to hand carve much of anything but I still use my Shinto on almost every job. To smooth transitions at seams after glue up or contours I haven’t fully modeled yet. Got mine from the old Japan Woodworker catalog before they were absorbed into Woodcraft. Still razor sharp after dozens of years and carves. I have the Planer version too.
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